


Soul Bouquets

by bananamoop



Category: Original Work
Genre: Demons, F/F, Fantasy, Magic, Post-Apocalypse, Post-Nuclear War, fae
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-05
Updated: 2020-05-05
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:21:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24015139
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bananamoop/pseuds/bananamoop
Summary: Soul is cosmic energy that can be found in the brain stem, and is the mana that flows through all living things. After its discovery, Homo Sapiens learned how to use Soul Harmony, but the new power caused their civilizations to go to war among each other. This led to what is now known as the Human Nuclear Catastrophe, which ultimately led to the extinction of the species sometime around 2485 C.E.





	Soul Bouquets

**Author's Note:**

> this is a story I wrote for one of my classes and I just wanna throw it in here for shits and giggles.

It was a PR nightmare when footage of American scientists performing a brain stem biopsy on a human was released to the public. The video itself was a decade old and had been pulled from the deep web. It was supposed to be just another video of someone doing something fucked up. Records aren’t clear on how or why the story became so popular. The leading theory is that people had already been suspecting the government of unethical experimentation, and the video validated and fueled that fear. People were looking for answers. There hadn’t been any information about what the researchers were working on in the video description, and there wasn’t any audio to the original footage. The pressure continued to build until Dr.Orion Pyxis went public with his discovery of Soul in 2053 C.E. Soul is cosmic energy that can be found in the brain stem. It is the mana that flows through all living things. The amount of control someone has over their Soul varies from individual to individual, but it’s power can be unlocked by anyone with enough practice. Today, Soul Harmony, the ability to access and use Soul energy, is taught in schools around the planet. 

_ Homo Sapiens _ quickly learned Soul Harmony, but the new power caused their civilizations to go to war among each other. This led to what is now known as the Human Nuclear Catastrophe, which ultimately led to the extinction of the species sometime around 2485 C.E. 

Scientists mark the end of the human species at the advent of Soul Override, a technique used by remaining humans to force evolution in order to survive the post-Catastrophe planet. By absorbing the Soul in the animals around them, they were able to force new tissue and bone growth. The practice is now seen as barbaric in modern society. Using Soul Override is comparable to killing an animal with your bare hands and eating it’s still-beating heart.

The human appearance changed so drastically and so quickly that the remaining human clans adopted new names for themselves. They took inspiration from their own ancient mythos and renamed their clans in accordance to the creatures they now paralleled. 

Slowly, people put the world back together. Agricultural and industrial revolutions were aided by the remaining information left behind by the  _ Homo Sapiens,  _ and their stories of war and destruction warned the new people of the planet about the dangers of prejudice and greed. 

Now, roughly 2,500 years later, people have reached the Neomodern era- a period of time that mirrors humanity at the time of the HNC. With the past as our guide, we have the ability to advance further than our ancestors. 

Yvar Byrch closed the video and turned to his class. He was a Fae- a race born from using Soul to bond with the forest. He was a fatherly man on the shorter side, with vibrant dark green skin and ashy blue hair that had started to grey. He wore khaki pants and a cheesy t-shirt that said something about being a history teacher. 

“I’m handing out a worksheet that is due Monday,” he said, “You are free to leave after writing your name and date at the top.” 

Marron watched as the stack of worksheets was passed from student to student. There was a wide range of species in her human history class that she had never seen before moving to Hells from Zemheim, a fishing town on the east coast where most people were Demonfolk- a subspecies of Beastfolk. She looked up at the whiteboard in the front of the room to check the date. 

“Today is: Friday, March 12th, 2563 A.S. (After Soul)” had been written in black marker at the top right. 

She quickly copied down the date on her paper, packed her things, and left for her apartment. The city bus was efficient enough for getting home. It was about a 40 minute ride to her stop, then another 10 minutes by foot before she reached her building. The subtrain could cut her travel time in half, but she liked to use the extra time on the bus to decompress. It was also cheaper, in the long run. She settled into her seat, pulled out her phone, and opened her camera app. When she woke up this morning there had been a pimple starting to form on her chin, and she wanted to know if it had changed at all during the school day. Her face appeared on her phone screen. She prodded at her deep salmon skin and ran her fingers through her white hair. It had grown past her shoulders since the move and was starting to get difficult to manage. After examining her chin- the pimple had grown, but unfortunately it wasn’t ready to pop- she ran her hand along her horns, feeling for any ridges or bumps that would indicate malnourishment. They parallel each other and grew straight up at the front of her head. She kept them filed down at 6 inches, but she knew demon folk with horns like hers that kept them shorter to avoid hitting the tops of door frames. Marron closed her camera app and did her best to pull her long snakelike tail into her lap. She was always self conscious about taking up too much space with her thick tail, but the bus was relatively empty today. 

She changed into sweats as soon as she got home, fixed herself something to eat, and waited for Ariete’s text. Ariete was a Demonfolk she met working at Roedall’s Daycare. After working a few shifts together, they realized that they were in the same year at Hells Academy, and even shared some of the same teachers. She was beautiful, with wine skin and ivory horns that curled back and blended effortlessly into her warm blonde hair. They had made plans to go on a trip to a mountain lake about three hours from the city about a month ago.

“How were classes today?” Marron asked, climbing into Ariete’s old sedan. 

“Same old, what about you?” Ariete said. 

“Byrch lectured for two hours straight and finished off class with a documentary. My brain is fried.” 

“It’s a good thing we’re taking this trip then!” Ariete smiled. 

“I’m so excited, apparently there is a flower that grows there that channels Soul extremely well.” Marron said, “They’re called harebells and they’re these long little light purple bell shapes.” She tried to make the shape of the flower with her hands. 

“You know how to make a flower wand? I never learned. I always just bought mine.” Ariete said casually

“Remind me what's in your wand?” said Marron. 

“White scarlet pimpernels- the ones that look like cartoon stars.” Ariete replied. “And yours are…?” 

“Yellow verbascums. They’re the small ones that have five round petals.” 

“That’s cool.” 

The two sat in silence for a moment, listening to the quiet music on the radio while Ariete drove towards the mountains. 

“You know… If you want, we could make wands together this weekend.” Marron said, looking out the window. Her face grew hot as she felt her Soul grow and radiate inside her chest. She sank down into her seat and pulled her knees to her chest. 

Ariete chuckled, “You’re such a hopeless romantic you goof.” 

“So that’s a yes?” 

“Oh my god.” Ariete said playfully. Marron giggled in response, causing Ariete to join her. 

It was going to be a good weekend. 


End file.
